Please Download the What3Words app

What3words: the app that can save your life

Police have urged everyone to download a smartphone app they say has already saved several lives.

What3words essentially points to a very specific location. Its developers divided the world into 57 trillion squares, each measuring 3m by 3m (10ft by 10ft) and each having a unique, randomly assigned three-word address. It turned out that 40,000 words was enough to map the whole world.

Why do we need such specific locations? Postcodes sometimes cover large areas in very rural locations - ambulances, fire services and delivery services and trades people may have difficulty finding you. Your sat-nav can quickly go out-of-date if you are moving onto a new housing estate. You may be walking or hiking or climbing in a remote area and get into difficulty.

35 Welsh and English emergency services have signed up for its service and they'd like more people to get the app.

If people do not have the app, the emergency services can send a text message containing a web link to their phones. But this requires a signal (85% of the country is said to have a4G connection). The app does not need a phone signal to tell someone their location, however.

Mongolia has adopted what3words for its postal service, while Lonely Planet's guide for the country gives three-word addresses for its points of interest. Mercedes Benz has included the system in its cars and what3words is now being used in 35 languages.

Some examples are the door of 10 Downing Street (slurs.this.shark), while the area across the road where the press congregate has its own address (stage.pushy.nuns)

Source: BBC News website, What3words: the app that can save your life, 15 Aug. 2019 ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49319760 )

25 Life Hacks

Life Hacks are just simple ways to save you time, hassle and money.

1. Rub the inside edges of new shoes with Vaseline - it stops them rubbing and prevents blisters.
2. Use the sticky part of a Post-It note to clean between the keys of your keyboard.
3. Cut the ends off flowers and dip into boiling water to make them last longer.
4. Use an empty plastic bottle to separate eggs. Crack the egg into a bowl, put an upside down empty plastic bottle over the yolk and watch it get sucked up inside.
5. A spritz of hairspray removes ink and permenent marker from hard surfaces.
6. Use toothpaste to clean hazy car headlights. It works on swimming goggles too.
7. No eggtimer? Get Google to do the job by typing 'set timer (XX) minutes/seconds' in the search bar.
8. Hang a tennis ball on a piece of string from the ceiling of your garage at the exact point you can drive without bumping into the wall.
9. Stretch a rubber band from top to bottom around an open paint tin to wipe your brush on and keep paint off the side of the tin.
10. Remove chewing gum from an item of clothing by putting it into the freezer for an hour, then pick off the gum.
11. Iron shirts from the inside to make pressing the button area easier.
12. Stack your folded clothes vertically in a drawer so you can see them all.
13. Fill a water bottle a quarter full and freeze on its side. Then fill with water and have it ice cold on the go.
14. Know the 9 times table trick? Hold out both hands, put down the digit you want to multiply 9 by, and count the total number of thumbs/fingers still up. For example, hold down 5th finger of left hand and there are 4 digits to the left and 5 to the right, so the answer is 45. (9x5 = 45).
15. To remove a cherry stone, use a straw to push it out.
16. A small dish of bicarbonate of soda in a wardrobe will absorb extra moisture and keep clothing fresh and dry.
17. If you want to conserve a phone battery, turn the screen brightness down, close any apps running in the background that you don't need, and turn off 3G/4G as these all sap power.
18. Kill weeds in paving by pouring boiling water on them.
19. Fill a bowl with water, pop in half a lemon and microwave for two to three minutes. The steam will loosen any dried food particles for easy microwave cleaning and the lemon makes the oven smell really fresh.
20. Use a clothes peg to hold a nail in place while hammering.
21. Use a strand of spaghetti as a taper for candles and avoid burned fingers.
22. Tangled jewellery? Keep thin chains knot-free by threading them through drinking straws, then fastening.
23. Use a slice of white bread to remove grimy marks from non-washable wallpaper.
24. To keep CDs from skipping, clean with car wax, dry and buff outwards from the centre.
25. Freeze grapes to chill white wine without watering it down.

Feature in Good Housekeeping September 2014

Build Confidence

We all have something we don't feel confident about - and every bit of low-esteem holds us back, especially in the workplace. And it's worse for women. Some of the obstacles are:

• Sexist cycle. The lack of female role models at senior levels exacerbates the perception among women that they are unlikely to make it to the top. The UK is in the bottom 5 economies when it comes to female chief executives, with only four in the whole list of FTSE 100 companies.
• Attainment vs potential. Research shows that while women are promoted for their potential with their past mistakes overlooked, women are promoted for what they have already achieved, and any imperfections on their CV won't be forgotten.
• Not as likely to give it a go. Men overestimate their ability while women underestimate theirs; women are therfore even less likely to attempt the task.
• Appearance vs ability. A survey by the Girl Guide Association found that 87% of young women felt they were judged on what they looked like, rather than what they can do.
• The brain. Many neurological studies show that the shape of a woman's brain and the way hormones are excreted mean she is more likely to worry, to be less emotionally resilient, to cling to negative experiences and to be less focused on winning and demonstrating prowess.

Linda Kelsey: You need to be seen doing something. Volunteer to take on tasks you may not be sure you can satisfactorily complete - you may do better than you think. Prepare for meetings and interviews in depth; work out how you can incorporate what you want to say even if you are not directly asked about something. Put a proper monetary value on your services. Dare to ask for more (it is a measure of your confidence); at worst you may not get it, but no-one will lose their respect for you if you put up a good case.

Ten ways to build confidence (Margaret McDonagh, General Secretary of the Labour Party)

1. Speak up early. If your fear is speaking up, force yourself to do it. If you make a bit of a mess of it, do it again. If you are going to a big meeting, plan to say something early on - don't wait until the end, because fear will increase. And find a buddy you agree with - you can support his or her point, and she or he can speak up for you.
2. Know yourself. Make a list of all the skills you need and rate your confidence level from 1 to 10. Where you have a low score, look for these qualities in your team. While caution may be perceived as a lack of confidence, it can be beneficial to organisations. Hedge funds run by women outperform those run by men.
3. Build your brand. Developing your 'brand' is key to moving up in an organisation. It's about how you stand, behave in meetings, manage your boss and, crucuially, knowing what you do well.
4. Ask for feedback. research shows managers are less likely to feed back to a woman (she might cry). Men are taken to one side for a quiet word and given the chance to learn from their mistakes. So just ask.
5. Create your own opportunities. If you can't change jobs, start volunteering - become a magistrate or school governor, teach kids sport, do an Open University degree -anything to build confidence.
6. Think far ahead. Research shows young women tend to think only about the current job, or one step ahead - they don't have a long term goal. Men do. You can only get somewhere if you know where you are going.
7. Get a sponsor. Women are over-mentored and under-sponsored. Sponsors will speak up for you in public, put you forward for new opportunities and stand by you. Half the women with a sponsor will ask for a rise; at senior level, men are 50% more likely to have a sponsor.
8. Move on. Women tend to be more loyal to their organisations than men, but often you have to move to get a more senior role.
9. Build emotional resilience. Don't try to protect your daughters - they have to be able to pick themselves up and keep going. They need to know that talent is not enough. Make sure they get a summer job that boosts their confidence in dealing with people.
10. Feel the fear and refuse to give in. Speaking up and being strong is much better than living in paralysing fear. Change happens because you make it happen. There is no natural evolution to equality - you need to fight for it, stand up for it, and make it happen.

Feature in Good Housekeeping October 2014

Calculating Tips

Q. Ever been out to a meal with friends and ended up trying to work out how much everyone should contribute to the tip?

A. Google has a tip calculator - just type in those two words and you'll get a pop-up box into which you can type the amount of the bill, a percentage for the tip and the number of people. Google then works out the total tip per person and the total proportion of the bill.

Phil Bradley in CILIP Update Dec/Jan 2014

100 Days to Change ....

The 100 Days movement focuses on making one change in your life for 100 days. Typical projects include: doing a 7-minute workout; painting miniatures, dancing every day, eat vegetables every day, practise 15 mins of Gernman vocabulary, giving up smoking - but it could be anything that you want to do.

The only rule is that you do it every day for 100 days. It has to be a challenge that means something to you, and ideally something that is going to prompt a big change in your life or something you've always wanted to be good at but never made the time for. Lots of people use it for a kick-start (20 push-ups a day then move into a whole exercise programme. Others move on to a new challenge.

The first 10 days are the hardest. It can also be difficult to keep it up later on, and there is always the temptation to skip a day. But often at the end of the 100 days it has simply become part of people's lives.

It may help to write down on a piece of paper what you will do each day of the commitment, and work out how you will continue the challenge if you are on holiday or you're ill and miss a day or two.

Check out the website: Give it 100

Declutter Tips from Marie Kondo

Tidy once and you'll never need to do it again. If you put your house in order, all you'll need to do from now on is to put your things away at the end of the day. People think it's best to tackle one room at a time or to do a little every day. Marie believes the secret is to tidy in one shot, as quickly and completely as possible. Start by discarding and don't even think of putting things away until you've finished getting rid of things you no longer need. When you tidy your entire living space in one go, rather than little by little, you change not only your space but also your mindset. The same impact can never be achieved if the process is gradual. As soon as you start to think 'I wonder if this will fit in this drawer', the essential work of going through everything to decide whether to keep or chuck comes to a halt.

A proper clear out involves three actions.

• Take the time to examine every item you own.
• Then decide whether or not not you want to keep it.
• Finally choose where to put what you keep.

The storage myth

• Storage methods promise quick ways to remove visible clutter - but just create the illusion that the problem has been solved.
• You need to be ruthless, even for things you feel obliged to hold onto, like a present that you don't like. You may feel guilty, but think about it like this: the true purpose of a present is to be received.
• For the clothes you choose to keep, fold as many as possible - you can fit 20 to 40 pieces of folded clothing in the space required to hang 10. Fold each item into a neat rectangle and store standing up rather than laid flat. This way you can see everything at a glance.

Don't do the following:

• Don't keep anything you don't use.
• Don't keep things at your parents' home.
• Don't scatter your storage spaces around the house - store items of the same type in the same place.

Does it bring me joy?

• Tackle your belongings by category, rather than one room at a time, so you can compare like with like.
• Start by going through your clothes, then books, papers, miscellaneous items and, lastly, sentimental keepsakes, as they're often the hardest to throw out. By the time you reach them, you should be in the swing of it.
• Starting with clothes, take everything out of your cupboards and drawers and pile them up together on the floor, then go through them one at a time. For each one ask 'does this bring me joy?'. If it does, keep it. If not, throw it out.
• In the end the things that remain are the things that you really treasure.

Say thank you and let it go

• It's human nature to resist throwing things away. It's easy of an item is broken, but harder if it can still be used, contains useful information or has sentimentalism ties.
• When you come across something that is hard to discard, ask yourself why you have it in the first place. Why did you buy certain clothes if you never wear them? If you bought something because you thought it looked great but never wore it as it didn't suit you, it's fulfilled two functions:  it gave you joy when you bought it and it taught you what doesn't suit you. Say thank you and recycle it.

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo

Happy Brain

In order to survive, our brains developed a negativity bias, which makes us alert to danger, loss and conflict, and good at storing those experiences for future reference. While this was successful to the survival of our species in the past, we still store bad experiences and easily forget good ones.

However, we can change the way we think.

• Identify a positive experience, focus on pleasant moments that make you feel good. 
• Hold on to it and stay with it for 5 to 10 seconds. Open yourself up to the feelings and let them fill your mind, noticing how the experience affects each of your five senses.
• Absorb it. Imagine those feelings becoming a part of you. Feel the sensation of stroking a cat, or the warmth on your skin as you sit in the sun.

Make it a habit. Like a muscle your brain gets stronger with exercise, so try focusing on happiness several times a day. Your mind is more receptive just before sleep, so think of what went well in the day as you drift off.

• Find a souvenir of calm. Go somewhere you feel at peace. Imagine that feeling of calm as a protective bubble and pick up a small object, like a stone, to keep in yourpocket and hold when feeling stressed or anxious.
• It's not information that changes the way people think, but behaviour.
• It's easy to be frustrated by your partner's domestic failings, so it's important to focus on the good bits.
• Encourage your partner to be positive. Ask what good things happened that day, not simply what happened, which gives them the chance to be negative.
• While we think the support of a partner or friend in tough times is what counts, it's even more crucial to share the good times.

Good Housekeeping, April 2014

MakeMeJoyful

Cheryl Adamson was inspired by her stepfather's illness to make changes in her life. One of these was to do small acts of kindness for other people, so she startedbeing nice to strangers.She handed out daffodils at her local railway station, left a kite for people to use in a park and hid a treasure hunt for strangers to follow. She started a blog about her random acts of kindness called makemejoyful.com

Work Smarter

If you've a  got a heavy workload just now, and are feeling the pressure, try these ideas to lessen the load.
Meetings

• Shrink appointments. Most people schedule an hour, usually more than needed. Book 45 minutes for long meetings and 20 minutes for short ones. 
• Insist on an agenda.
• Don't book back-to-back appointments. Add downtime between meetings to take stock of recent meetings, and respond to new enquiries.
• Start on time - even if not everyone is there. If key people are missing, cancel the meeting - it's not ok to waste other people's time.
• Delegate or duck out. Not sure what the meeting is or why you've been invited? Ask the organiser to clarify why you're on the list. If they've asked the wrong person, suggest a colleague. If they fudge the answer, decline; you might ruffle a few feathers but save yourself some time and sent a strong message.

To Do Lists: Making 'to do' lists sharpens our focus. Writing down items, completing them and crossing them off, gives a sense of accomplishment that can energise. But not all 'to do' lists are the same, so here are some suggestions.

•  Be your own boss for two minutes. Ask yourself 'Which three tasks does my employer care about most?' Every day cross reference the list with today's tasks and prioritise.
• Timetable your tasks to match your most productive times. keep a diary for a week to note the time you are at your best.
• While you travel, use a Dictaphone to make notes on things you need to do. (Kelly Hoppen)
• Use an Excel spreadsheet with a colour-coded list to see what is most urgent. Each morning take 15 minutes to review and move items up or down to prioritise. (Sophie Hobson)
• Use blank sheets of unlined paper and draw pictures and diagrams. (Edwina Dunn)
• Use a paper diary with a week per page. Don't double-book and space out meetings and deadlines.

How to Push Back

• Be less available. Unless you've promised to be available at a certain time or you will reply straight away, they should be able to wait until a time that suits you.
• Suggest alternatives. If you see a smarter way to do things, suggest it to your boss. Could two weekly meetings be merged? Does a pointless form slow you down? 
• If you can't say No, say Not Now or Not Me. If it isn't urgent, ask to postpone it. If a colleague is more suitable, ask them to replace you. If anyone questions this, politely explain you have a heavy workload at the moment and need to prioritise to get it all done.

Turn off Distractions

• Divert calls to voicemail.
• Check email only twice a day.
• Switch off alerts and reminders - they are distracting.
• Find a quiet room.
• Don't share your work emailwith friends.

Finally

• If you wake up early, get up and do something useful. Clear your email, think about long-term plans or read an interesting article.
• Plan your wardrobe the night before.
• Go Mediterranean and add nuts and fish to your diet - they can improve mood and focus in ten days. 
• Exercise at lunchtime releases feel-good endorphins which improve mood and reduce stress.
• Take proper breaks away from your desk or computer. Take a walk if you can. 
• Keep emails short. Be clear in the subject line - Action required or For information only.
• Plan to spend proper time with family and friends at the weekend to feel more relaxed and revived for Monday.

Feature in Glamour, September 2014

Willpower

It's not always easy to stick to our good intentions - going to yoga class, resisting a cake or making the effort to catch up with friends. It turns out we all have a finite amount of mental energy, which is drained as the day wears on. Your mental reserves are topped up during sleep, so you are more likely to get your most difficult tasks done in the morning. But working with the ebb and flow of your mental energy and using your natural ability to make new habits will help you reduce stress, make better decisions and make habits you aspire to (such as exercising after work) become second nature.

6 Step Plan

• Have a clear, specific goal in mind.
• Think about when, where and how you will perform your habit. To make something automatic, create an association between the situation and the habit by doing it in exactly the same context each time.
• Start small - ambitious failure is not a good strategy. 
• Be specific about what your ritual will be and write it down. If you plan to go to the gym, write down exactly which exercises you'll do, how long for, and in what order. That way you won't arrive, walk around wondering what to do and only stay for as long as it takes to avoid embarrassment before leaving.
• Monitor your progress by keeping a chart or diary and marking each day you preform a habit. People who give themselves a tick each day they were successful lost more weight, and were more likely to resume their weight loss programme after slipping.
• Repitition is key but don't worry if you miss a day. People who are inconsistent generally don't manage to form habits, but missing just one day has no real impact.

How to keep going

• Argue with yourself in advance. Think of any excuses you might come up with and write down a counter argument.
• Be wary of using a time as a cue for a habit. Use something you do at a regular time, such as a meal, so you won't need to clock watch.
• To break a bad habit turn it into a good one. Banish the unhealthy 11am snack and replace it with a healthy one.
• The best time to start new habits and break old ones is when your circumstances change. For example, just after you've moved home or changed jobs, all your old habits will be in flux, so it's a great time to change your lifestyle for the better.

Good Housekeeping magazine, September 2013

Count Your Blessings

A Gratitude Jar is a positive way to shift a negative mood and focus on all the things in our lives we should be grateful for. Simply jot down truly great, feel-good experiences - help from a stranger, a stunning sunset, writing a letter to a loved one - andpop in your jar. Open the jar if a gloomy mood hits and remind yourself of all the bright and beautiful things that have happened so far this year.

Good Housekeeping, June 2013